William Colenso arrived at Paihia in 1834, at the age of 23, from Penzance, to be printer at the C.M.S. mission station; there he published some major colonial texts. After a few years he married Elizabeth Fairburn, was made deacon, and was sent to Hawke's Bay, where he established a mission station near the mouth of the River Clive.

The marriage was an uneasy one, and after the birth of two children (two difficult and painful events) Elizabeth refused to have another. William then had a boy to his servant Ripeka, who had shown him kindness. This became a public scandal. Elizabeth left him, he lost his job and his children, and was tried for adultery.

He tenaciously retained the mission property, and lived there in a raupo hut for some five years or more, before entering upon a more public and civic-minded life, in which he distinguished himself by a pompous self-righteousness. This mellowed as he grew older, and the scars of the scandal healed in respectable residence on Napier Hill.

From the first he was marked by an extraordinarily vigorous physique, which did not leave him until the last decade of his life. In the course of his missionary journeys he explored a good deal of the eastern, northern, and central North Island, always indulging his keen interest in natural history, especially botany. For this he received some honours in his life-time.

Towards the end of his life he joined the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, where he met the new Bishop. The resulting friendship led to Colenso's triumphant reception back into the church - a most remarkable scene. He died in 1899, aged 88, never having left the North Island.

The fourteen plants in this book are orchids named and described by Colenso. Several still bear the names he gave. Others were later found not to have the right to exist as separate species; a few of these were later resurrected and returned to his patronage and may still be uncertain of their right to self-hood.

The descriptions are distinguished by a compact intensity, in which considerable verbal and intellectual forces combine to create a perceived reality in a latinate botanical English. Colenso was largely self-educated. but this only rarely shows; he was commonly thought to have an M.A.

I take these descriptions verbatim, with the exception of the two Microtis species, where I allow myself the luxury of omitting a small amount of material. However, as all these documents were transcribed by hand, there are likely to be some errors in punctuation and of that kind. The documents came to me in my childhood, being given to my family by a descendant of Colenso's daughter Fanny, who remained in New Zealand and married. His two sons went to England: Ridley studied law in London. Willie married a cousin in Cornwall.

I have attempted to unlock the documents and release their contents. Those who wish to discover Koroneho's life and works must search out biographical material elsewhere.

Earina albaE.alba
(Transactions of the N.Z.Institute 1886. 18:p.267) Stems:stout, sometimes branched at or near base. 8-10" long.Leaves:alternate, sessile, sub-linear-acuminate, acute,broadest near base, thickish rather harsh and sub-rigid, petioles long, clasping, decurrent, extending to within the petiole below,black margined.Flowers:terminal in compound panicles 2-4 inches long,rather close-set, sub-disti­chous. Each sub-panicle usually containing 3 flowers, bracts numerous,im­bricated, striate, brown, the lower acuminateand fimbriate, the upper ob­tuse with a small mucro.Perianth pure white, segments of equal length,spreading, recurved, obscurely 3-nerved, very obtuse.Sepals ovate-ob­long, margins entire, petals broadly-obovate, crenulately notched in the middle of theupper margin. Lip broadly oblong (or sub-5-sided)entire obtuse, margins corrugated and incurved,two small ochraceous-yellow spots near the centre oftip, and two small greenish crescent-shaped calli nearthe base. Column sub-hooded, tip ochraceous-yellow,append­ages overhanging in front below anther andproduced in four small ob­tuse teeth, and a minutetubercular wing on each side, with two minutemamillary-like dots in front below stigma.Ovary:long, cylindrical, striate, twisted.Hab:On edges of rocky cliffs and on dry stony declivities,and about the dry exposed roots of Fagus solandri;banks of River Mangatawhainui. Seventy-mile Bushcountry of Waipawa; 1878-85. W. C.Obs:This plant in appearance closely resembles E.autumnalis, Hook fil. of which it may (by somebotanists) be considered a variety. It possesses,however, some characters which that species has not,or which, at all events are not given in any publisheddescription of it that I have seen.

Dendrobium lessoniiD.lessonii
(Transactions of the N.Z.Institute 1883. 15:p.326) Plant epiphytal and terrestrial; an erect and pendulous, diffuse slender shrub.Branches wiry terete hard and brittle, some darkish umber-brown and some bright yellow, glossy and horny, ringed with dark scar-like joints 1/4-1" apart in a bi-tri­pinnate frond-like appearance. Leaves alternate 3/4-1& 1/4 " long, 1-2 lines broad, 3-6 lines apart sub-linear-lanceolate, or sub-ovate-acuminate, broadest near base, sessile spreading often falcate and twisted, cortaceous, semi-rigid, smooth not glossy, pale or yellowish-green. Margins entire, obscurely 10-nerved, midrib sunk and obsolete, somewhat concave, tip obtuse, vaginant, sheaths truncate, longitudinally and regularly striated, finely corrugated transversely. Flowers white, membraneous, few, scattered, usually 2 (sometimes only l, very rarely 3) in a short loose raceme on a stoutish erect peduncle shorter than the leaves; always bursting at a right angle from the internode in the branchlet, and generally alternating with the leaves; never axillary nor opposite to a leaf, peduncle glabrous, shining. Perianth open, expanding, segments of equal lengths, sepals ovate-acuminate, 5­nerved, margins entire, upper smallest. Petals recurved, oblong-ovate, obtuse, with a minute point. Labellum 3-lobed: two lateral lobes small, oblong, obtuse, conniving, middle lobe large, longer than broad, veined, sub-rotund (or sub-panduriform or broadly obovate) apiculate, sides conniving, 4 longitudinally elevated and shining green lamellae near the base which are bluntly toothed or crested. Column slightly winged near apex, light green, pollen masses yellow. Ovary green, shining, obscurely striate.Obs. I believe this plant to be identical with D. biflorum of A. Richard, which was discovered by Lesson, (the naturalist of the French expedition under D'Urville), in Tasman's Bay Cook Straits, in 1827, and published by Lesson and Richard with a very full description and a folio plate, in 1832, and, therefore, I have great pleasure in naming it after its original discoverer. W.C. 1883.Hab. In forests, Norsewood, Hawkes Bay district, North Island, high up in the rocks or pine trees, (Podocarpus spicata), and sometimes on the ground in dry stony hills under Fagus trees, flowering in November; 1879-1882; also among rocks near the sea at Cape Turukirae ( the south head of Palliser Bay), 1845-6: W.C.

of the Fagaceae, or beech family of trees and shrubs,
which includes the beech, chestnut, oak , etc.

[NL Fagace(ae) name of the family(L. fag(us) beech.]

The N.Z. members of this family belong to the Nothofagus
group.
Other members of this group are found in Australia and
Chile.
Of the N.Z. species, N. solandri and N. cliffortioides are
smaller.
N. menziesii is a larger tree.
N. truncata and N. fusca are tall trees.
They grow a great forest.
Go into it.
Lie face down stretched outflung,
your face in the mould.
Smell, listen, enter
edged scent of fallen leaves
sharp as frosted air,
hot sun on a myrtle bush
water on a rock
and warm.

Petals fall from a mistletoe;
red dust sun shafts,

and the birds –
when the wind blows in the tops,
songs from a western range.

Knock three times and enter in.
I've paid the sub.
They'll know
and not refuse.

Would they?
If I went back with Elizabeth and Willie
would they think I'd paid enough?
Would they look at Willie, at Elizabeth, at me,
and give me Life,
for service?

Costive years.

It's locked,
but I can hear
their kakariki patter.
They make life a comestible,
trade antique money dug from ruins.
Too dull to mint their own,
too thoughtless to be anything but out-of-joint with time;
they deal ancient values out
as if they were their own.

Corysanthes hypogaeaC.hypogaea(Transactions of the N.Z.Institute 1884.16: p.336)Plant:very small,tender,succulent;Leaf:single,membraneous,shining,much veined,veins largely anastomising with longitudinal dots in theinterspaces, 5-8 lines diameter, cordate-reniform 3-lobedat tip, middle lobe produced, acute acuminate, side marginssinuate with a single notch on both sides near base, auricleslarge, distant, subhaste, very blunt; light green above, midriband marginal spots purple; silvery below and sometimesdashed with a purple hue; 1/2-1 1/2" long, petiole white,often pinkish, with a sheathing truncate bract at base;peduncle short, bibracteate close to base of flower, the frontbract much smaller linear, the hind one ovate-oblong,both obtuse;Flower:much veined, dorsal sepal arched, closely clasping, subovate-spatulate, 3-4 lines diam, narrowest at base, rounded andslightly sinuate or subapiculate at apex, green with a purplemedian line; lateral sepals and petals 3/4" long, linearacuminate, very narrow filiform lower pair hair-like lip large,dark blood-red above with darker stripes, greenish belowspotted with red, bi­lobed at top, lobes rounded entire 2-3deep laciniations or ragged lobes be­low with the sides muchcut and jagged and incurved a delicate circular bordered ear-like aperture on both sides immediately behind bases of petals.Hab.among mosses,steep cliffy sides of dry hills, Fagus forests near Norsewood; 1880 (plentifully but barren); 1882 (a few capsules long past flowering); and 1883, September, in flower: W.C.Obs.I have known this plant for some years, but never found it in flower until the spring of 1883, mainly owing to its peculiar manner of growth,and its very early flowering; for while its one small leaf is spread flat on its mossy bed, its deli­cate flower is 1"-2" below the surface, and never appears above during its flower­ing, though afterwards (in a few observed instances) its capsule is shown just above the surface, owing to the elongation of the peduncle after flowering, which habit is also common to the genus. It grows pretty thickly scattered in beds, show­ing its small glistening leaf just above the mosses and debris of fallen fagus leaves (F.solandri) but flowering specimens are very scarce, not one plant in 20 bearing a flower. A species possessing close affinity with C.triloba, Hook.fil.

FIELD NOTESC.hypogaea
_anthes Corybas on moss and filiform much veined
laciniated litter light and closely clasping 1/2 lip
large like linear ear + 1 like early auricle
anastomising hair like much veined green with
2 to 3 marginal spots purple sinuate and single
leaf litter cliffy affinity Fagus forests few
cordate and kidney acuminate with one new
notch near Norsewood new under debris W.C.

Caladenia variegataC.variegata
(Transactions of the N.Z.Institute 1885. 17:p.248) Plant.: erect,6" -12" high,glandular-pubescent,pubescence pink-tippedScape: red, sub-rigid not succulent, slender above leaf, stoutishbelow, arising from thickened node, having three claspingmembraneous acute sheaths, one at base enclosing scape andleaf, one at middle 6-8" long, and one close under ovarium.Root: rather long, stoutish, ending in a long white tuber big as a pea.Leaf: single, 1/2-1" from base, 6-8" long, 1-2" wide, linear-acuminate,thick, glab­rous, channelled green on upper and purplish-redon under surface, slightly ciliate at edges and very sparselypubescent underneath on the lower portion with long weakglandular hairs.Flower: single on top of scape, perianth spreading more than 1/2"diameter; dorsal sepal green, arched, sub-oblong-obovate,obtuse and apiculate at apex, pro­duced glabrous above; lateralsepals pinkish,oblong,apiculate,longer than petals,3-nerved;petals pink,oblong-lanceolate, apiculate, falcate; lip sessile; diskwith two longitudinal rows of bright-yellow stipitate glandshaving large globular heads, extending from inner part of middlelobe down into the throat, with smaller glands scattered on eachside, and one or two at the margin of extreme base of the middlelobe; the two lateral lobes are trans­versly banded with light-purplemargins, white, rounded at tips; middle lobe deltoid, deeplycrenulate, recurved, bright yellow; column winged throughoutgreen, pubescent at top, transversly banded below with lightpurple, similar to lateral lobes; anther acute, tip subulate,margin finely fimbriate.Ovary: 8-9" long, linear-obovate, sulcate, densly glandular-pubescent.Hab: Plentifully, but only in one spot, among mosses or fallen and rottenFagus trees, and on the ground along-side, in rotten vegetable soil,shady woods, top of a high hill near Norsewood. Dec.1883. W. C.Obs: Closely allied to the two known N.Z. species -- C.lyallii and C.minor,and also to several Tasmanian and Australian species -- C.carnea,alata, and angustata; but while serving naturally to unite themdiffering from them in all important characters. C.minor, which isso common in the north (B.O.I.) I have never met with in thesesouthern parts.

Stale
stone in there.
None come to say ‘Here you are at last!
Thank you for those scrupulous reports,
so innumerable!
so valuable!
May posterity its praises pour upon you!
We feel we know N. Z. quite as well as you
(the President will say)
and your wife!
How kind of you to come.
And haven’t you a child?
A handsome boy,
so like what we imagine a New Zealander to be.’

He stands there,
feels his watch and says
‘How wise you were to watch and write.
You’ve sent us quite a Testament –
Epistles and your Acts,
and probably a Gospel too –
if one searched for it;
Creation to Destruction,
and – from what we hear –
return to life with joyous acclamation.
What’s more –’

I’ve lost sight.
Knock again –onetwothree.
That last time
they let me in so I could strut
inimitably.
The glory!
O Privilege! O Blessed!
To name my Paradise,
to build my Babylon!

Success!
No need for bibles now.
Your name’s up there with the best,
the things of your world below. Why the hurry?
Do stay and tell
of the wonders that you’ve put about your land.
Gastrodia leucopetala!
Everybody knows it,
in black print and white,
in the Transactions of the Royal N. Z. Institute forever.
Now you can face your days –
fourscore years and rather more
of reverence!
It’s well you lived.’

Was it so?
Say to the President:
Elizabeth has left me
and Willie’s come to you. I’m wordless,
so I write,
page upon page of discovery,
(I’m congested with newness,
my throat choked,
heaviness at heart)
harmonies of sun and sea
so precious rare and delicate
they rest on me
and my name, to be.
I daren’t turn my back nor blink,
lest they die.

That’s why I wrote, Mr. President,
and have not returned.

‘Then, William, it’s as well you lived so long.
You found sense when you were seventy,
as a man does when life’s a friend,
and gifts aren’t blown by haste.
Your burning years were left behind,
and you lived unconsumed;
your nature brass,
you made it gold,
then died.’

Remember this:
the subject’s always right,
in itself correct.
All living things are accurate,
with own centricity.
Each has axis through the core
and turns in gravity.
Being is enough to justify a name.
Life is not levity;
it gathers in likeness groups.
Departures from the type
are not faulted nor diminished
from those that more closely conform.
A name codes recognition,
but does not make identity,
nor signify lightly.

FIELD NOTES
Six segments separate out at
Kaipara cliff in six spicata
Winkleman fistulous list at
[ low tide Oct. when there’s ]
access in the sinus scrub not
sweet root west from the sea
stout Kaipara column 4 at
green grass near light. C.W.

NOTE: On a New Zealandfungus that has of lateyears become a valuablearticle of commerce. 1884­85. Trans. of the PenzanceNatural History and Anti­quarian Society. W.C.

No matter.
No need to leave it.
You know I dislike disloyalty.
The prejudice has ended many lives.
But I forgive.

Listen now,to each word.
You will hear if you’re still,
though not clearly.
I can’t afford to be too clear,
so you will only hear on the bounce-back,
as it were an echo,
like a prophecy.

I am going to restore you.
To wisdom, wealth, to status, then the church.
It will be as in your youth,
at Penzance –
the upward step.

At once?

Sequentially.
To the world it will seem a consequence of your
‘Tracts for the Times;
No. l; On the Sabbath and its due Observance’,
which matter doesn’t trouble me,
but even I must be politic
with the society I made,
and its intelligence.

Continue, please,
to use your knowledge of the Polynesian Language,
and of Botany,
but I recommend that you forget about the Bible.
Leave that to me –
not that I wrote it,
but it is my responsibility.

Do this,
and I will send my Angel of Munificence
to make your life a palace,
a house on the hill (in immigrant style)
with carpets and personal care.

What of my age? I’m tired of daring initiative.

Join, please, the Hawke’s Bay Philosophical Institute.
Take a position of power.
Be the secretary.
You will meet the Bishop
and become his friend.
All else will flow from there –
privilege, orders, the lot.
It’s always the way.
There’s nothing like a resolute co-ordination
of time, people, and foresight.
As a plan for progress it’s infallible,
and so am I,
when I use it.

Q. What is your name.A. William.[Gulielmus]Q. Who gave you this name.A. My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism.Q. What did they then for you.A. They did promise and pronounce three things in my nameFirst, that I should renounce the pomps and vanity of thiswicked world.Secondly, that I should forsake the sinful lusts of the flesh.Thirdly, that I should keep God’s holy will and command-­ments.Q. Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe, and todo, as they have promised for thee.A. Yes, verily, and by God’s help so I will.Q. Tell me, how many commandments there be.A. Ten.Q. And which is the seventh.A. Thou shalt not commit adultery.Q. What dost thou chiefly learn by these ten.A. I learn two things: my duty towards God, and my dutytowards my neighbour.Q. What is thy duty to God.A. My duty towards God is to believe in him, to fear him, to love him, and to serve him loyally all the days of my life.Q. What is thy duty towards thy neighbour.A. My duty towards my neighbour is:To be true and just in all my dealings,To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart,To keep my hands from picking and stealing,To do my duty in that state of life, unto which it shallplease God to call me.

Go,to the space betweenthe questionand the mute reply.Wait there,be notilucent.
Listen,to each word.
You will hear if you’re still,
though not clearly.
You will hear on the bounce-back,
as it were an echo,
like a prophecy.

Join, please, the Hawke’s Bay Philosophical Institute.
Take a position of power.
Be the secretary.
You will meet the Bishop
and become his friend.
All else will flow from there –
privilege, orders, the lot.
It’s always the way.
There’s nothing like a resolute co-ordination
of time, people, and foresight.
As a plan for progress it’s infallible,
and so am I,
when I use it.

FIELD NOTESO.caput-serpentis
Caput tophet at the dimidiate road
by the sides or distich as describe
the unknown conniving clavate in
crisis for 1 short broad base shin-
ing green-by-the-sides serpentis
perianth in the apical lobe of the
quadrate-orbicular columnar stigma
pedicelovarybractonthesubulate W.C.

NOTE: Memoranda of an excursion made in thenorthern island of NewZealand in the summerof 1841-2 … Tas. JournalVol. 2, pp. 210-34, 241-308,1846. (A reprint of thearticle in the LondonJournal of Botany.)

Pterostylis patensPt.patens
(Transactions of the N.Z.Institute 1886. 18: p. 270) Stem stout, 1-flowered, 4 inches high; 2-3 short ovate acute brownish and scarious bracts near base; Leaves 4-5 stem-leaves, equidistant, 3 inches long, 5-7 lines broad, sub-linear­lanceolate not narrowed at base, sub-acute, recurved and revolute, thickish, finely­papillose, keeled, 3-nerved, nerves obscure; uppermost leaf shorter, close to base of ovary, l & 1/2 inches long, erect, half the length of perianth and sub-clasping.Perianth large, very open, bladdery, particularly at base, which is sub-globular, somewhat sub-quadrate in outline and very wide; upper parts of segments brownish-red and extending low down on lateral sepals. Galea erect, broadly arching and flat above, 2 inches long without tip; tip of dorsal sepal hooked, sub-acuminate, extending ½ inch beyond lateral petals, which are strongly 1-nerved, broad at tips, and acute; lower lip, the entire part thrown forward and downward, cuneate, 3/4 inch long, much concave between lobes, their margins incurved above, and the lobes suddenly and completely reflexed below base of upper bract (or floral leaf), tapering into stoutish points more than 1 inch long. Labellum prominent, very irritable, linear oblong, 10 lines long, 2 & 1/2 lines wide, truncate at base, recurved at tip, with a longitudinal central stout ridge throughout; tip thick, obtuse, red, minutely papillose claw stout, curved, nearly 2 lines long, a thick green protuberance on under-surface opposite to its base, and a large tuft of stoutish spreading fimbriae at tip, which are also lobulate or branched; rotund slender, wings incurved. large, more than 4 lines long, front margins sub-sinuate with a long finely-subulate erect tooth from upper front angle rising above anther lower lobes obovate or oblong and rounded, margins entire; stigma long, narrow not prominent, at its central base an erect subulate white appendage, 2 lines long, projects forward from between two finely incurved corrugated lines or side-angles of lower column.Hab. Forests, hilly country, near Norsewood, County of Waipawa; 1883-84 W.C. Glenross, County of Hawke’s Bay; 1884: Mr. D. P. Balfour.Obs. 1. I first detected this plant in 1883, but then, while perfect, it was past flowering. Believing it to be a new species, I brought away carefully its tubers and planted them in a pot, and they have grown strongly and flowered. l have had, however, but one fresh flower to examine, but this was so large, fully developed and gaping, that I had no difficulty in so doing, and that without breaking-up or even gathering the specimen. Its form is striking, and its habit peculiar; all its floral parts being so very open and free, and its lateral sepals wholly deflexed horizontally; in these characters I have not seen anything like it among all the flowers of the genus, neither in these species of N.Z. , nor in those of Australia and Tasmania. Obs. 11. I may also remark that a slenderer plant of the same height grows close to the above, (in the pot), as if from a twin tuber, the three leaves of this one are near the top of its stem, and are about as long as those of the other, but are sub-linear­spathulate; it has also a similar scarious bract at the base. It may be the barren or leafing form (young) of this species; as such obtains among some of the Australian and Tasmanian species – as for instance, in Pt. obtusa, Br., Hook. fil. , “Flora Tasmaniae”, pl. 115, c.

Prasophyllum means leek-leaf
and refers to the bent leek-like leaves
of these orchids.

The genus was described in 1810
by Robert Brown
and consists of about 80 species
mostly in Australia.

The four species known here
are P.colensoi after William Colenso,
the early botanist;

P.patens, meaning wide-spreading,
(referring to its flowers);

P.pumilum, meaning very small,
(referring to its size);

P.nudum, meaning nude,
(referring to its reduced leaf).

P.variegatum was included inP.rufum by Cheeseman.and the light on the world dimmed just a little ( imperceptibly)as if / as if a star had died from the skyflowers faded and all the jewels on earth lost lustre(just a bit) and value

Hatch reinstated the name P.nudum (1947)the weather clears rain falls mostly at nightcity smog sweeps out to seashares sell and you smellthe westerly gorse when wind blows down from the hills

The whole plant exceedingly slender, of a dusky purple-brown or purplish-red colour; tubers narrow, oblong. Leaf narrow, 1 & 1/2-3 lines wide, 7- 10 inches long, thickish, channelled, glabrous. Scape erect, very slender, almost filiform, bibracteate, 8-10 inches long; raceme 3-5 flowered (occasionally only one); flowers rather distant, bracteolate on long slender pedicels; perianth 1/2 inch diameter; sepals dark purple-brown edged with a green line, a yellow central stripe and broad white exterior margins, sub-ovate-acuminate, much concave, dorsal one largest, the two laterals with a long mucro; petals light pink, sometimes white, elliptic-oblong, obtuse broader than sepals; lip the smallest; column pink dashed with blue, apex stout, much emarginate, incurved, dark and edged with bright yellow (as in T. nemoralis), but the plumose appendages are more produced and rise above the column; anterior base slightly erose; stigmatic gland similar to that of T. nemoralis; anther very acuminate, tip subulate.Hab. In Fagus woods on dry hills with the preceding species, but usually higher up; 1881-83. W.C.Obs. I have both sought and watched this plant very closely; from the fact of its widely different appearance at all stages from T. nemoralis, and yet, on examination and dissection, I find it possessing such scanty differential characters; the principal one consisting in its plumose staminodia rising above the tip of the column – its narrower and variegated sepals – its slenderer proportions and dusky aspect and fewer flowers. In all these however it is very uniform; as I have seen and examined (though patiently and waiting for their development) some scores of flowers and plants. It also has a peculiar habit of growth, being often found in little clumps (like crocuses and jonquils) from which arise 6-12 scapes. It wears a very striking and elegant appearance, when its dark perianths with their segments edged with white are about expanding, from their contrasts in colour. Notwithstanding the column­appendages being produced beyond its tip, while in T. nemoralis they are below it, this species is naturally very closely allied to that one.

Dear Mr. President,To my great disappointment I depart now for the Antipodies without bidding farewell to you, or the members, conjointly. It was my earnest wish to do so. The years of my youth have been directed and improved by membership of the Penzance Natural History Society, and I do not hesitate to add that the wonders of creation, so often illustrated at the monthly meetings, have led me to adore the Creator to whose service I now dedicate my life.It is not likely that I shall again be able to attend a meeting of the Society, and therefore I did especially desire to make a proper departure. You may well imagine my chagrin when my entry was prevented by Mr. Thomas the doorkeeper. Though I remonstrated with him, he insistently maintained that the rules prohibited my entry. That is true. During my time in London, and in the confusion of my preparations prior to the implementation of my calling, I had overlooked the renewal of my subscription, and am not a financial member.Was it right, I ask myself, to so apply the letter of the law? For some years I have been a diligent and loyal member of the Penzance Natural History Society, and have in gratitude sought its welfare. Surely some small return was due me.I pressed Mr. Thomas to seek permission for my entry; he left, to consult you, and returned with your refusal. I cannot find it in me to believe him, that you would be so severe, and must conclude that his own pride forced him to untruth.To leave so anonymously pains me, and tarnishes many golden recollections. They cannot be entirely lost, however, and at the Antipodies I shall devote my leisure (such as God might permit) to the study of the Anthropophagi; and to the gathering for you specimens of the geology, ornithology, ichthyology, conchology, entomology, and botany of that interesting portion of the globe.

staminodiaV
staminodium(stam’ə nō dē əm) n., pl. –di.a (–dēə)Bot.a sterile or abortive stamen.a part resembling such a stamen.also, stam-i-node (stam’ə –nōd’)[STAMIN–+–ODE+ –IUM]also,
staminody(stam no de) n.Bot. the metamorphosis of any of variousflower organs, as a sepal or a petal,into a stamen

Archit.a. a rigid, relatively slender, upright support,composed of relatively few pieces,b. a decorative pillar, composed of stone or resemb­-ling stone in proportions or detailing, typicallyhaving a cylindrical or polygonal shaft with acapital and usually a base.

Any columnlike object, mass, or formation:

a column of smoke.

A vertical arrangement on a page of horizontallines of type, usually justified: there are threecolumns to a page.

A vertical row or list: to arrange the figures in acolumn.

A regular department of a newspaper, magazineor the like, usually having a readily identifiablehead­ing and the by-line of the editor, which reportsor comments upon a particular field of interest.

A formation of ships in single file.

A long, narrow formation of troops in which thereare more members in the line of movement than atright-angles to the direction.

Bot. A column-like structure in an orchid flower, a sex­-ual organ, composed of the united stamens and style.

William Colenso arrived at the Paihia Mission Station on Dec. 30th. 1834, from Cornwall, aged 23. He died at Napier on Feb. 10th. 1899 aged 88, having never returned home to England.

Colenso was engaged as printer to the mission, and in spite of the poor equipment there, quickly proved his worth. He became fluent in Maori, and was required to print texts, worship manuals, translated portions of the Bible, and—notoriously—the Treaty of Waitangi.

However, he was an ambitious man, and not content to remain as printer. There was no doubt about his abilities; his physical strength and quick tongue made him popular with the Maoris, but he clearly wished to improve his station in life—a quite traditional use of the church, and well understood.

Should he fail in this—and it is as if he knew he would—he had a second string to his bow, which he never let out of order. In Cornwall in his youth he had been a keen amateur naturalist, and a member of the Penzance Natural History Society, with which he kept in correspondence for much of his life. At Paihia he found a flora and fauna entirely new to him and of great interest and beauty; names and information about these unfamiliar species were available to him from the Maori and from the literature of exploration, and his eagerness to seek this out soon came to the notice of his superiors at the mission, the Williams brothers.

Already, at this time, the Bay of Islands was a popular port of call, most particularly for victualling purposes. There were small groups of Europeans living at Paihia, Kerikeri, Kororareka, and Te Puna, but Paihia was the most organised of these settlements, and most especially attracted visitors. Many of these were professional men—artists, writers, explorers, scientists. At this high point of European imperialism, knowledge was at a premium, and at least five major scientific expeditions called in at the bay during Colenso’s time there; among these were Darwin and Durville. Such visitors were often given hospitality at the mission station.

He was usually deputed by his superiors to take these visitors on trips into the Northland hinterland; his sharp eye, vigour, and alert curiosity attracted the notice of these men, which soon proved of great advantage to him. With several, such as the botanists Cunningham and Hector, he made long-enduring relationships and correspondences, and built for himself a reputation that was more than amateur. In London he came to be credited with a doctorate which was of course not gained, but neither was it contradicted.

One of the readiest of these outings was to the nearby Kerikeri Falls. Colenso must have grown rather sick of them, for they were popular, and many paintings of them at that time still exist. The gorge below is by its nature in the height of the Romantic tradition, being wild and forested, and it seemed then that everyone wanted to go there.

The falls are so constructed that there is a cave behind, and into this Colenso took an Australian visitor—Allan Cunningham, the Government Botanist from N.S.W., who came in April 1838 for a lengthy stay. There they found a small orchid, referred to in a letter by Cunningham as “my little darling; the subaqueous acianthus of the cavern of the great falls of Keri Keri.” He named it Acianthus rivularis.

Why it was named Acianthus is a puzzle, as it obviously belongs to the genus Corybas, to which it has since been transferred, but we might note that this was a new plant, a new genus to both men, and most likely the information needed to ensure accuracy was back in Sydney, or Kew to where so much was sent by New Zealand botanists, and still remains.

The profession of taxonomist was not one Colenso had preparation for, but from now on he more frequently found himself in this role. Many of the plants he was coming upon had no Maori names, having been not noticed by them or being too imprecise in form to be commonly distinguished. Cunningham was a great help in providing some necessary training, but he damaged his health in his work and died the next year, leaving Colenso on his own, and with a warning to never sleep in wet clothes or he too would contract the same illness.

Opportunities for exercising these acquired skills were unrivalled; the young man’s fitness, language ability, and leadership quality caused him to be sent on missionary expeditions to East Cape and into the North Island interior, where he mapped collected and classified, being explorer scientist and missionary all together.

The act of describing classifying and naming a plant (Taxonomy) does in a sense cause it to come into being, in that it is made distinct from its neighbours and relations. Before this the plant has, of course, existed but not as a recognisedly separate identity. Many New Zealand plants have different forms or foliage at different stages, such as Pseudopanax edgerleyi, named after another botanist of Colenso’s time who discovered the tree at East Cape. Others have different forms according to the climate of the region, and many hybridise extensively. The taxonomist gathers the information available about the species, then organises form and delineation, enabling it to appear as an individual. For this reason the act of ‘naming’ has had a spiritual significance in many cultures, and to some degree in our own. In his later years Colenso did gather about himself an aura or mana, the consequence of this work, which has given so much integument to this new nation.

In doing this there was much opportunity for error, even by the trained professional, as we see in the instance of Acianthus rivularis. Colenso, especially in his earlier years, would send his specimens to Sir William Hooker, the eminent botanist at the Kew herbarium in London, who would do the work of naming them. Confusions occurred. An example is the collection he organised from Mt. Hikurangi at East Cape in 1844, which produced the new species of Aciphylla colensoi and Olearia colensoi, and some others. He employed a collector, whose name was not recorded. His account of the expedition was made many years afterwards, and is both brief and hazy. It could well have happened that any one of those plants found had been collected by an earlier botanist, been named, and left lying unknown in another herbarium. Or the same plant could have been endemic in another land, such as Australia or Chile, and be already well-known there. Such confusions can lie dormant until discovered and corrected by a later researcher.

This can cause difficulties; it’s like discovering a new cousin—the whole family is re-contoured. It has happened to our Kanuka, which was first named a Leptospermum like the Manuka, but has been since put in the genus Kunzea. One might feel defrauded by the former identity, that it was not real. For the Acianthus to become a Corybas is as big a shift. In such a re-location does the plant actually change? Most certainly it must be regarded with new perceptions, if only because it has new relatives.

In later years Colenso encountered difficulties besides those of error. His familiar and supporting colleagues died, and were replaced by professionals who regarded him as an amateur who was inclined to over-classify. It came to be thought he was over-eager, too inclined to make new species, essentially untrustworthy as a scientist, and perhaps in the job for the wrong reasons. He began to claim that the perception his long experience gave was to be preferred above scientific accuracy.

The charge of untrustworthiness was much strengthened by the scandal he had once fallen into at Hawkes Bay, where he had a child to the family’s servant. This occurred when he had charge of the mission station at Clive. The matter became notorious, and he was officially removed from his post of missioner by the bishop. Though restored to the diaconate not long before he died, the fog of scandal remained about him. Not his wife, nor any member of the family, attended his funeral; his papers were tipped down the house well—only those lodged elsewhere survived.

In more recent times the value of his wealth of experience (now that this is removed from his own insistence) has been more accurately assessed, and there is now a tendency by botanists to re-examine his nomenclature, to put more trust in his taxonomist’s instincts.

He himself did not help matters by his tendency to quarrel with other botanists, this being fuelled by a sense of inferiority stemming from his own working-class roots, and enlarged by the domestic scandal. He sought refuge in science from the hurt and frustration that was given him by the dismissal from the church, and eventually he found it.

Early in the history of the colony so-called ‘Philosophical Societies’ were established in each main centre, and these soon became incorporated into an umbrella society called ‘The N.Z. Institute’, which acted as a publisher for the papers delivered at the meetings. Colenso joined the Hawkes Bay Philosophical Society, and usually held high office in it. His first paper to appear in the ‘Transactions And Proceedings Of The N.Z. Institute’ was in vol. 1. 1868. It is an expansive essay on ‘The Maori Races of N.Z.’. He next appears ten years later in Vol. X. with three historical articles, the intervening years having been spent in paid employment as a school inspector in Hawkes Bay, and in politics.

Volume 12 of 1879 also contains a number of contributions from him, including the Article LIV—‘A Description of A Few New Plants from our N.Z. Forests, with dried specimens of the same, by W. Colenso F.L.S. (read before the Hawkes Bay Philosophical Institute, 13th. Oct. 1879).

He begins with this:

“During the last few years I have again turned my attention in my spare time to the elucidating a little more of the still unknown botany of our adopted country; being as strong a believer as ever in the great peculiarities and narrow areas of not a few plants of our local floras. And, from among several plants which I have detected, which have pleased me, I now bring you the following—all, I believe, being new species and hitherto undescribed, if not totally unknown to science. Some of them, I think, will interest you, particularly the Clematis, one or two species of Metrosideros, and the three ferns. But, alas! between the most carefully prepared dried specimens and living plants — in all their glory and beauty — there is “a great gulph” of difference”.

He named the clematis he claimed as a new discovery C. parkinsoniana, unaware that Raoul had described it in 1846, then naming it C. foetida, which name it still bears.

Of the two ratas he describes, Metrosideros pendens is now classed as a variety of M. colensoi, and his M.subsimilis has been put with M.diffusa.

His Olearia colorata was not accepted as a species, and the same has happened to other plants in that article, such as the ferns he named Dicksonia sparmannia, Hymenophyllum pusillum, and Trichomanes venustula.

At this point he is 68, living alone in his own house at Napier, with 20 years of life ahead. He is botanising as if the local flora is as fresh and undiscovered as it was in 1840, and makes mention, in a footnote, of Dr. Hector’s statement in 1868 that “new things could now hardly be looked for in New Zealand, for the plants were pretty equally distributed, and a number of excellent observers had devoted themselves to exploration in it.” Hector even then was claiming that the job of the botanist had been completed in this country and Colenso, by his own actions, is still continuing to disprove the statement.

Notable in that plant list above is the low score of sustained names. Other New Zealand botanists became more and more doubtful of Colenso’s methods, but most hesitated to comment. The old man was jealous of any ground that he held was his, and could be a bitter critic. With some justification, he felt that his many years of residence and observance in this country gave him a pre-eminence that ought not to be challenged. However, he did not understand how great was the depth and wealth of the scientific knowledge that was being produced in the new country.

At length T. F. Cheeseman, then the botanist at the Auckland Museum, wrote to him in 1884:

“I am sorry to say that I find it impossible to accept as distinct species most of the plants you have described in the recent volumes of the ‘Trans. Of the N.Z. Institute.”

Colenso’s reply is revealing in its admissions and refusals; in brief:

“--- it makes little or no difference –that is, to me. If you knew those plants I have laboured to describe, you would, I think, alter your judgement concerning, at least, some of them: and further, that even in those instances in which I may be wrong (although I am not conscious of any) I shall not have laboured in vain, because I have brought forward in every case certain characters - - - - - - that will be of service to working botanists - - - - -.”

The Auckland botanist asked for dried specimens of Colenso’s finds, but was refused, and told that the latter kept no herbarium. This was not strictly true, but was more a means of avoiding acknowledgement of the poor quality of his specimen material, which was carelessly gathered and poorly maintained.

In his latter years he was, in this way, an irritant in national science. Here we are concerned only with plants, but it would be possible to write in a similar vein of his studies of insects, lizards, fish, birds, the moa, and most especially of the Maori, in which subject he was a great debunker of myth. His erratic work caused confusion, and has prevented the reward deserved by his indefatigable diligence, his insights and perceptions. In most recent years, however, the distance of time has enabled a truer perspective, and we acknowledge him now to be one of the first and greatest of those who hold before us an image of this amalgam of land and living things we call New Zealand.

The creation of this species is a particularly interesting instance of the way Colenso’s imagination worked. The identification is of a supposed variant of a very tiny epiphytic orchid, B.pygmaeum, found throughout the country. It is so small it can be easily mistaken for a coarse moss on rock or bark.

One wonders what prompted Colenso to attempt to make a new species of it, for in fact nothing can be found to distinguish the new from the already named. He seems to have become very engaged with the seed-capsule. He had an acute sensibility to the picturesque and unusual, expressing this in occasional verse, which survives in fragments. Grottoes and glades especially aroused his admiration.

On occasions this imagination could serve him well, and enable observation that might be contrary to the culture of the time. For example, as pakeha settlement remorselessly progressed and the bush retreated, taking with it many plants long known to him, he described the process as a desertification.

But he could also be far-fetched; his penultimate publication, “Of a Radiant Phenomenon”, written after a train journey through country that had not even a track when he first came, marvellously involves Constantine and N.Z.Railways in a Wairarapa fog.

In the instance of this orchid he was more than usually far-fetched, being led astray by the ripened seed-capsule, which gapes wide on drying, to expel the dust-like seeds. To Colenso they appeared like the mouth of a gasping fish—hence the name. He made sketches to show it, and in his enthusiasm overlooked the fact that this was in no way unique to the specimen before him, but was a characteristic of B.pygmaeum as a whole.

To defend such errors he would sometimes reply that it is better to add to the sum of knowledge than be accurate about it, which is a defence more suited to a politician than a scientist. However, this same gift of sensibility to the unusual also made him the pioneering botanist he was.
____________________________________________

* Transactions of the N.Z.Institute 1894. 26:p.319.(the specimen was collected near Waipawa)

Is there still time to add to the MS? Over the weekend I stumbled across a piece of very relevant information, and hasten to send it on. It belongs on p. 1, after the paragraph ending ‘given hospitality at the mission station’.

To the references there should be added:An Illustrated Guide to Fungi on Wood in New Zealand, I.A.Hood, AUP 1992.

‘The British Antarctic Expedition of James Clark Ross called at the Bay of Islands in 1841, and stayed for three months. The expedition’s botanist was Joseph Hooker, who later became the curator at Kew Gardens. Hooker and Colenso went on a number of botanical excursions together; the specimens collected, which included a number of fungi, were later identified in London and published in 1855 as part of the records of the expedition. Some were named after Colenso, such as the large fungus Grifola colensoi, which he found near Eketahuna; this is also found in Australia, thus taking his name abroad. There are a number of such instances.’

I promise not to read any more.

•

[The texts of Parts 1, 2, 4 & 6 are taken from A Brief Description of the Whole World 6 (1997): 10-19 / 7 (1997): 35-40 / 8 (1997): 62-67 & 9 (1998): 49-54. The texts of Parts 3, 5 & 7-14 (plus the variant states of Part 8) are taken from the complete typescript of all 14 parts in Richard Taylor's private collection. The Afterword comes from online files recovered from Leicester's computer, and was presumably intended for the text prepared for publication (by Alan Loney) in 2001.]

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About the Editor

I've published five poetry collections: City of Strange Brunettes (1998), Chantal’s Book (2002), To Terezín (2007), Celanie (2012), and A Clearer View of the Hinterland (2014), as well as six books of fiction, most recently Kingdom of Alt (2010). I work as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3988-3926).